Meet Prices Leap Upward in February

In February, the average retail price of a broad selection of meets lept upward. In “Beef prices soar“, CNNMoney reports the following year-over-year price jumps according to market research firm FreshLook Data:

Beef up $3.87, 12.4% – beef is America’s #1 source of protein in sales ($74.3 billion in 2010, 59.6 pounds per capita), but the inventory of cattle has dropped to 92 million, a level last seen 53 years ago.

Chicken up 3.9%

Turkey up 5.4%

Veal up 6.7%

Pork up 10%

The article also contains some interesting statistics and descriptions of the beef business. In particular, beef producers are blaming rising input costs for the prices they have passed on to consumers:

“‘There’s inflation in everything we buy to run our business,’ said Bill Donald, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, an advocacy group for beef producers.”